Production Process For Alex G

1. Production Process For Alex G

2. Version

3. Summary The Miniature Misadventures of Alex G is a video game software product that requires the involvement/collaboration of many aspects. • Programming • Art/animation • Design • Business • Marketing • Audio (Music, SFX) • HR • PR We need a pipeline that reduces the dev time that includes the need for iteration and polish.

4. Staff History Josh • First game being worked on • 1 previous music album released. Record Label: http://www.nocturne-records.org Nat • 4 previous commercial titles • 6 personal titles. Portfolio: http://nat.muchtech.com/portfolio.html Adam • 8 personal titles. • Previous programming experience at MS. Portfolio: http://adamkromm.site90.com/portfolio.php Jared • 1 personal title (585 project). Jason • First game being worked on. • 2nd managed business with admin and IT familiarity.

5. Responsibilities Nat PM/Producer Adam Lead Programmer Staff positions: Designer Animator/Artist Jared Musician Business Director PR/Comm Josh Audio Producer Marketing Director Jason Programmer Administration Business Owner

6. Purpose We want a: • Professionally utilized, • Fast, • Efficient, • Predictable/Risk Managed, … process to create a quality video game software product. We also need all development members to understand and adhere to the process. It should not take us 2.5 years to make this simple of a game. The sooner we can deliver, the sooner we can move on.

7. Process We are officially utilizing AGILE development process. The pipeline is modelled under Lean UX. Modified process to accommodate personal schedules. Ideally, AGILE processes work best due to reliance on constant communication. We have a mandatory meeting every TUESDAY at 6:30pm Calgary Time. Utilizing Skype. If can’t make it, send in weekly update notes before that day.

8. Pipeline How it works:

9. Pipeline(2) Marketing In our case: Designer • Obtain approved data/material of game. • Use data to generate buzz and hype about product. • Feature design • UX/UI design • Feature iteration tweaks based on playtest/visible results Playtest/QA Art/Animation/Audio • Create data needed for programmers. • Iterate and push quality of current data if have time. • Data approval subject to decision of Design. • Receives playable build of game. • Tests for bugs and design issues. • Reveals any tweaks/iterations needed or feature breakers. Programmer • Implement designed features. • Features must be fully functioning and playable. • Don’t confuse polish with basic function. • Bug fix. • Must have playable build for Designer/QA test in order to proceed on tweaking and iteration.

10. Pipeline Advantage From this pipeline, we are able to: • Have a playable build at any given time. • Due to having a playable build, we are able to test constantly and thus receive feedback on iterations/improvements to be made. • Make the best decision on what to prioritize and what needs to be done. Visibility and feasibility. • Manage task/feature priority accordingly due to a longer term outlook we will be able to have on the status on the project.

11. Requirements For this process to work and speed up development: • Don’t be the bottleneck - Understand that there is always someone depending on you to complete your current task so that they can start/finish their own. • Accountability - Take charge of your task(s) and communicate constantly on the status of it. Don’t wait until last minute to voice concerns/potential delays. • Constantly communicate – No one can read your mind, update those involved on the status of your task(s) by emailing, showing up for meetings, etc… • Task Tracking – Track your tasks and break them down into basic steps to minimize complexity and co-requirements. Remember the iterative process, feature first, polish after a working feature is up. Your feature can’t be tested/iterated upon if you spend all your effort polishing and implementing it on the first go at the same time.

12. Tools Use the tools that we have available to everyone: • Peak Pixel Email account. • Peak Pixel forums. • FTP (for data uploads). • PivotalTracker (task tracking system for Agile dev). • SVN (for code uploads/sync). Email any requests so it is formally written down and stored, and upload all data (in an organized way) to FTP.

13. Task Tracking We are utilizing the story/task tracking with the cloud solution, Pivotal Tracker.

14. Important Dates Due to current inconsistent speeds, it is very hard to juggle the deliverable dates. However, here are the very absolute important dates that we must have a working build for thus far: 3/8/13 – FPP - PASSED 1/9/13 – First Demo Release - DELAYED TO 10/9/13 – additional playtest feedback polish. 1/1/14 – IGF award build/playable Demo, PAX EAST build/demo. NO BUGS ALLOWED. 31/5/14 – PAX PRIME build/demo, Indiecade build/demo. NO BUGS ALLOWED. Ideally: 1/5/14 – FEATURE COMPLETE (Alpha), Start of formal debug. 15/7/14 – BETA, start of submissions for English markets. Start localizations. Debug/corrections if there are submission fails. Start ports if there aren’t.

15. Summary We don’t have a lot of time. You need to push. If you think this is rough, 95% of commercial game studios will be even worse. In order to cover our costs, we’re going to try to push for regional platforms/languages. We’re also entering the game for contests at IGF, IndieCade, PAX EAST/PRIME. These contests award both cash prizes + international game development recognition + game media coverage. Don’t rely on someone else to deliver your material. Contact the person you need data from directly through email and list it out thoroughly. Upload whatever data onto the shared FTP server.